Autodesk acquires key intellectual property (IP) and the team from Golaem
Monday, August 5, 2024 - 18:15

We are thrilled to share that Autodesk has acquired key intellectual property (IP) and the team from Golaem!

What does it mean for you?

As of today, nothing changes: our developers and support teams are still there and committed to supporting you and your projects.

We understand that, with Golaem’s acquired team, Autodesk will next work toward integrating Golaem’s key intellectual property (IP) into Autodesk’s current product offering. 

Autodesk has acquired Golaem’s key IP, and as such, how we offer licenses has changed and our online store is now closed. For details and help with project or academic licenses, please contact us directly.

Golaem customers will receive an email with more details.   

Golaem is proud to have powered hundreds of productions, among the best of their time, during the last 15 years. Stay tuned for even more amazing things ahead!

What about the future of Golaem?  

As you may know, being a small and independent company of 7 people, we did not always have the means to develop all our ideas. Our team is eager to join Autodesk teams to deliver even more productive and user-friendly tools, directly in Autodesk products.  

We understand that Autodesk plans to integrate Golaem’s key IP directly inside Autodesk’s current product offerings, making it the top standard for crowd simulation and allowing more users to be able to benefit from the power of Golaem tools to give life to their 3D scenes in the VFX/Animation industry and beyond.  

Furthermore, we believe that the Golaem team’s experience with procedural animation and AI will be a key addition to Autodesk’s teams, reinforcing Autodesk's leading position on animation tools and delivering even more user-friendly and productive workflows to its customers.  

To infinity and beyond  

This marks a new chapter in our journey for Golaem and the team. This has been an incredible ride taking technologies out from our research lab and turning them into an acclaimed and two-time Emmy award winning VFX/Animation software.   

We would like to thank you all, our users, our friends, our customers, and we are excited to keep working with you in the future to create more incredible workflows and deliver astonishing shots!  

If you have any questions, please reach out. 

Sincerely,  

The Golaem team

Golaem at Siggraph / DigiPro 2024
Friday, July 12, 2024 - 09:44

We will be attending again Siggraph and DigiPro in Denver from July 27 to August 1st and this year is turbocharged with events!

Golaem Booth

Join us on the Golaem booth to discover what's new in Golaem 9!
French Pavillon Booth 425, Exhibition Hall, July 30 - Aug. 1

Golaem Party

Get together with Golaem users and people interested in crowds while enjoying a few drinks!
Mon. July 29th - Ask your favorite Golaem guy for an invite!

Autodesk Vision Series

A conversation between Golaem & Autodesk about how to deliver faster rigging and animation with AI
Siggraph - Room 401 - Wed. July 31st | 4:00 pm

 

DigiPro Talk

Hear about the highs and lows of implementing a ML Deformer in Golaem
DigiPro - Sat. July 27th | 4:25PM

Siggraph Talk

Learn more about our work on a lip sync tool with 100% customizable results!
Siggraph - Bluebird 3D room - Tue. July 30th | 2:22PM

Production Talk / Mikros

See how Mikros Animation used Golaem to populate TMNT: Mutant Mayhem
Siggraph - Bluebird 3A room - Tue. July 30th | 11:07AM

Golaem 9: Hero Characters Quality At Your Reach!
Monday, May 27, 2024 - 10:55

Golaem proudly announces the release of Golaem 9, a groundbreaking version that elevates the quality level of crowd characters to animated hero characters with the same acclaimed user-friendly interface and efficiency

Golaem crowd tools keep playing an important role in ambitious projects, like filling Paris streets with cars for John Wick (RodeoFX), or populating Time Square for TMNT Mutant Mayhem (Mikros Animation) where animated characters need to be at the hero quality level.

Golam 9 facilitates the creation of such characters by providing universal joint rig animation support and direct animation replay, as well as crowd levels which enable adding secondary simulations on top of chosen characters after the main simulation pass. To bring details even further, Golaem 9 also includes a beta ML Deformer able to bring advanced character deformation into the crowds.

Keeping Golaem's mantra of making artists’ life easier in mind, a slew of workflow and UI improvements have been added into Golaem 9 based on customer feedback and their experiences in major crowd productions.

New Animation Engine

Golaem 9 comes with a powered-up animation engine, lifting some input constraints and making Golaem able to animate any character in a straightforward way. These enhancements empower the crowd team as well as rigging and animation departments to enhance the quality of their crowd characters, ultimately saving significant time and effort.

Direct FBX/USD/BVH Animation Replay

Golaem 9 supports native motion format inputs (FBX/USD/BVH), enabling artists to play animations directly on their crowd characters. Thanks to the new one-click mapping workflow, Golaem can automatically play these motions on any character and retarget them on the fly if needed.

9-DOF Animation Support

Golaem 9 now supports animations influencing rotation, translation and scale, providing flexibility for riggers and animators to work as they please and enabling the creation of more advanced characters and motions.

Modular Rigs Support

Golaem 9 is the first commercial crowd software to support modular rigs without relying on a secondary skeleton mapping, hence giving artists the freedom to work with the same structure as hero characters.

Crowd ML Deformer (beta)

Golaem 9 ships with a ML Deformer node which can reproduce advanced deformations on top of crowds. The Crowd ML Deformer comes with a training tool to encode any deformation done on a Maya rig, even with custom plugins. The trained network can then be linked to Golaem Characters to be executed at render time.

Create Shots Without Simulation

Creating Characters From Scratch

Create a shot from scratch with the Golaem 9 CreateEntity Layer. No simulation required anymore, you can build an entire shot with the Layout tool. Any character can be brought into your shot and multiplied later with the Duplicate or SnapTo layers. They can then be animated with a PlayMotion node. 

PlayMotion Layer

The new PlayMotion layer can animate or reanimate the characters in your shots. Create new characters and bring them to life, or select a few characters in an existing crowd and assign them a new animation. 

Crowd Levels

Golaem 9 introduces the Crowd Levels paradigm, allowing artists to build shots incrementally by re-introducing cached and layouted simulations as a source in a new simulation level hence allowing new possibilities.

Adding Details to Simulation

The new Crowd Level paradigm enables artists to first focus on the crowd simulation itself and add extra passes like cloth simulation or secondary animation made with physics simulation afterwards. By blurring the lines between simulation and layout, Crowd Levels makess it possible to take advantage of the best of both worlds to create a shot. Indeed, it simplifies the crowd workflow while giving the ability to push details where they are needed for maximum visual impact.

Taking Notes Or Changes Into Account

Populating shots which are changing daily can sometimes be frustrating and cumbersome. The crowd simulation levels enable artists to keep their existing simulation and mix it with a new one in a non-destructive way, whether adding new character types, more people or new obstacles in their shots or completely resimulate a character without affecting the others.

More Control On Your Crowds

Track Locator Navigation

The Track Locator provides a new way to drive characters between two curves which can be dynamically animated, hence giving control on the overall shape of the crowds on top of the path to be followed.

Foot Locking

Thanks to the new foot locking feature, Golaem 9 can automatically enhance foot contacts on the ground, offering a procedural solution for users who may lack the time or skills to fine-tune their input motions beforehand.

Workflow and UI Improvements

New LOD Workflow

The new LOD workflow facilitates the creation of LOD levels by giving the possibility to have different numbers of meshes and different meshes names in each LOD, hence allowing the creation of completely custom LODs. The Character Maker Geometry tool also facilitates their export to different geometry files.

Custom Skeleton Display

While artists will often use the Render Previz display mode showing the near final look of their characters, for more clarity or improved performance, sometimes they just want to see a bone display of their skeleton. Golaem 9 enables the creation of a custom display shape for this character proxy hence making this display more useful and efficient.

New ChOps Nodes Attributes

Since its first release in Golaem 6 for the Castlerock attack by Unsullied and Dothrakis cavalry in Game of Thrones, artists have put the node-based custom behavior creation tool to good work in order to get advanced control of their crowds. 

Golaem 9 introduces new nodes (GeometryInput, Memory, Ramp, Counter,...) and attributes to make this tool even more powerful and simpler to use. It also comes with detailed video tutorials explaining the use of each node.

And Still...

Traffic Simulation

Less known than its character animation capabilities, Golaem also comes with traffic simulation features, enabling putting cars on a network of road curves in minutes, complete with traffic light system, number of lanes and speed control, and so on. 

Flocking Behaviors

Golaem features flocking behaviors that can simulate birds, fishes, butterflies,  bats, or even space ships. Whether it is to put a few birds in a scene, or to create advanced shots with bees perching on a main actor's face, Golaem can do it!

Advanced Crowd Characters FX

Golaem supports skinned fur generation, and GPU accelerated cloth simulation on crowd characters. Thanks to its various export formats and DCC plugins, it also makes it easy to interface with other character fx simulation tools.

Golaem 9 is compatible with all Maya versions from 2020 to 2024 and provides integrations with Houdini, Unreal Engine, Katana, 3dsMax and all USD-compatible platforms, like Unity or NVidia Omniverse. 

Want to try Golaem for free??!
Download Golaem PLE version

Story of a Crowd Artist: Tristan Saindon
Friday, February 11, 2022 - 17:33

Tristan Saindon trained himself as a crowd artist at L'Atelier Animation to help with the production of the recently released Fireheart animation movie. For a first try in crowds, this is a big success, as we have been astonished by the life in the streets of the movie.  Today, he shares his story and insights with us. 

How did you become a Crowd Artist?
Short answer, by necessity. To be more precise, I came in at l’Atelier animation with no experience in the industry with an opportunity as a wrangler. I did that for a while and at one point, my employer needed a crowd artist.  The show had already been in motion for some time and they had trouble finding someone. So I took a chance and said that I would be willing to step in as their crowd artist if they would let me learn to be one with them. This is how it started.

Could you share a few projects you have worked on?
For now, the only one that I can talk about is Fireheart. The story of a young woman in New York City who wished to be a firefighter in 1930, where women were not able to.  Very good movie, and really challenging to do. As a first challenge, it was a good one. The crowd was not implemented yet in the pipe at l’Atelier Animation so a dev had to first step up to help me in the process.  Julien Buisseret, was a key to the whole project, without him, I would not have been able to do so much. I then started my job and filled Times Square with thousands of characters walking on sidewalks, crossing the streets, waiting on the corner for the light to change, having to simulate traffic, trying to make the whole thing synergise. 

Given your experience in crowds, which trends have you seen emerge over time, and how do you see the future for crowds?
I think that all the movies or shows that are coming out right now try to beat each other in terms of wanting to leave an impression on the viewer so a way they go is to have more stuff. Either visual effects, bigger crowds, etc. So I think crowds actually have a bright future. I’m pretty sure the demand for crowd artists will go up even more then it is right now. 

How did the COVID crisis affect film production and the way you are going to work with crowds?
The experience I had was fine, doing the same job from a different place, that’s pretty much it. Right now, the crowd department doesn’t seem well established in the pipeline of a lot of studios and it feels like we are out of the loop sometimes. So working from home didn’t really change anything for me.

Would you recommend CG artists to get in crowds? How? Which skills should they develop?
Yes, come and have fun with us. I can’t speak for other programs since my experience is limited to Golaem, but it's easy to learn and to use, they have some great tutorials to learn by yourself as I did and there is a good community that helps each other. I know that when we had issues or questions regarding Golaem, their team was quick to help us.  

The best skill you should develop is logic and creativity. And this one is more important to me, but not necessary, try to be clean and precise with your work. It’s easy with the Layout tool to get messy and if something is wrong in your graph, it will be easier to find it if everything is well labeled. 

Would you have some advice for people wanting to create a demo reel in order to be hired as Crowd TD?
Don’t waste too much time on something grandiose with dynamic camera movement, gorgeous lighting and hyper realistic animation, show that you can use Golaem, try all their tools to get used to them. Studios right now are hiring and the more time you spend on your demo, the less you’ll get working in the industry. You can spend 6 month full time and put out an incredible shot, but in reality you don’t get that much time to do that when you work.

Anything else you would like to share?
I want to thank Golaem for the good times they provide me through their program every time I work. It’s a lot of fun every day and it let’s me push myself and try new things to get some amazing simulation. If you are interested in learning how to use the program, you can join their discord, they are pretty active there and there are a ton of artists helping each other and if you have any questions for them, reach out, they will help you if they can with whatever you need.
 

Story of a Crowd Artist: Yannick Cibin
Friday, January 14, 2022 - 15:51

We know Yannick Cibin for a long time, and he has kind of accompanied, and sometimes driven the evolution of Golaem, using it on more and more advanced shots, the peak so far being the incredible bees shot he did for Holmes & Watson, marking the start of 3D terrains usage in Golaem. Today, he shares his story with us. 

How did you become a Crowd Artist?
I started as a runner and then 3d generalist in a small company, which was a great way to start in the industry. I loved the variety it offered and the opportunity it gave me to dive into different aspects of 3d.

I really enjoyed programming in python, texturing, modelling; everything to be honest. But one thing that really got me was when we worked on War and Peace and I had create our first crowd shots. We had a visit from the golaem team to show us the software. At first I wasn't too taken by it, but as soon as I started using it I fell in love with the whole thing. Since then, anytime I got a Golaem project I got the biggest smile on my face.

Could you share a few projects you have worked on?
I have worked on War and peace, The Last Kingdom,  Holmes and Watson, Batman amongst others. My two favorite shows to date were War And Peace and Holmes and Watson as we had to develop lots of new skills and do a lot of R&D. I love it when we have to do something that isn't integrated or possible yet and we have to find a way to get there. 

Given your experience in crowds, which trends have you seen emerge over time, and how do you see the future for crowds?
I feel like crowds is still a very niche part of the industry. It's hard to find artists, and there is quite a bit of demand. I feel like, as I'm sure everyone is saying, AI will surely take over and help improve crowds. In my experience, what still requires a lot of effort in any crowd software I've used is to create realistic and smooth avoidance in tight quarters. I selfishly hope AI could help with this the future.

How did the COVID crisis affect film production and the way you are going to work with crowds?
Currently there is a lot of crowd work, due to the devastating consequences of Covid. Unfortunately large groups of people can't be filmed together, so using cg crowds can be a safe way of achieving this. I assume this will bring more awareness to the possibility of using cg crowds as an alternative.

Would you recommend CG artists to get in crowds? How? Which skills should they develop?
I would absolutely recommend it. To be honest, I would recommend playing with a crowd software of their choice and seeing if they like it. The chances are the first few weeks/months will be painful, so don't be scared to reach out to the community. Golaem Crowd support has been incredibly approachable and friendly with me and the many questions I have had for them.

In terms of skills, I personally love scripting for anything VFX. But just go for it and see how it feels and what you enjoy. When I decided to join the industry I was pretty scared that I would need to be both an artist/programming genius. Don't be intimidated by what you think you'll need to know coming in. This is generally a welcoming industry and as long as you come in with a good attitude and motivation to learn, people are likely to want to teach and support you. 

Would you have some advice for people wanting to create a demo reel in order to be hired as Crowd TD?
I'm going to be honest here. There isn't too much competition right now, as it's still quite niche. I think just set yourself a goal and try and achieve it. When I needed to learn flocking for Holmes and Watson, I created a pretty tight obstacle course and I kept learning and tweaking until I managed to make the bees follow it perfectly. You could try that. Otherwise if you can show that you can make agents go from standing to walking and back to standing without sliding feet, that would be a good start.

Anything else you would like to share?
Try things out. Don't be intimidated by the amount of options and steps available and ask for help when you need it. It's not always easy to get into the industry, but once your in things get easier. Crowds is currently a good way in as there is a lot of demand.

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